Winners of three straight, the Stratford Warriors have a chance to feast on the soft portion of their schedule and bank some points against teams below them in the standings.

Stratford kicked off a three-game weekend Friday night at Allman Arena with a 4-1 win over Brampton – its fourth victory against the Bombers this season – before road games Saturday in Brantford and Sunday in Waterloo.

The Warriors are 6-0-1-0 when facing that trio in 2019-20.

“Lots of people say this, but our league is different on any night,” Warriors captain Malcolm McLeod said. “We were at the bottom of the standings six games ago, so anything can happen on any night, so you gotta show up to play.”

McLeod returned to the lineup for the first time since injuring his left ankle Oct. 4 against Listowel. It was the same ankle he hurt as a rookie, which cost the hometown blue-liner most of his rookie season.

“It feels really good,” he said. “I watched a lot of games my first year, and every one counts. It’s great to be back.”

Stratford went 3-3-0-1 in McLeod’s absence.

“Two weeks out of playing games, it’s really easy to get out of game shape,” he said, “but as you play it comes back quickly as well.”

The 19 year old has had a strong start to his third season. His three goals in 11 games are already a career high, and he’s 10 points shy of the 14 he accumulated in 2018-19.

“Experience definitely helps getting comfortable.”

Stratford (8-6-1-2) benefitted from a week off between games. The Warriors hadn’t played since last Friday’s win over Cambridge, and they spent the rest of the weekend on a team bonding trip to Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pa.

“We got to work on all the little things that add up in a game to make big differences,” McLeod said.

“We want to make a big pushback,” McLeod said. “We were on a (losing streak) too long for our liking.”

Remy Dalben capitalized on a broken play to score for Brampton midway through the third. The Bombers suffered their sixth straight loss, and they fell to 5-12-1-1 overall after a promising start in which they won four of five games to open the season.

Despite the defeat, Brampton head coach Jeff Flanagan said the analytics his team tracks show many trends headed in the right direction over the last five games.

“We’ve found ourselves in a position where we can’t score,” he said. “Tonight was a perfect example. They got some really nice goals, but we had a seven-minute power play and other good opportunities.

“It’s partly an issue with being a young team.”

NOTES: Brampton’s extended power play came late in the third after Ertel took a slashing minor and cross-checking major along with a game misconduct … Stratford goalie Rhett Kimmel made 20 saves, and Bombers counterpart Owen Porter stopped all 22 shots he faced after replacing Diego D’Allesandro, who was pulled after allowing four goals on 14 shots … Stratford head coach Dave Williams will be back behind the bench Saturday after serving a two-game suspension … Each team went 1-for-9 on the power play … Attendance was 839.